Exercises In Muted Affection
by PwnedByPineapple
Summary: Troy and Abed officially announce that they're a couple. Jeff totally doesn't care. No, really. Troy/Abed, Jeff/study group, aromantic!Jeff.


**Titles:** Exercises In Muted Affection  
**Summary:** Troy and Abed officially announce that they're a couple. Jeff totally doesn't care. No, really. Troy/Abed, Jeff/study group, aromantic!Jeff.  
**Notes:** This kind of ignores a few things in canon (Troy/Britta and Jeff/Annie, namely), so I'm not actually sure when it would take place. Doesn't really matter, though; it's just a 'what if' ficlet, inspired by whimsicalcircle's tags on a post on Tumblr.

* * *

"Um… we gotta tell you guys something."

Jeff didn't even have to look up from his phone to know that Troy and Abed were holding hands. He'd seen them out the corner of his eye, and Annie's quiet, muffled squeak of excitement only confirmed it.

_About fucking time,_ Jeff typed and then casually deleted it.

"Me and Abed are kind of… going out."

Jeff continued to type. _Took you guys long enough. I'm surrounded by morons, I swear._ Again, he calmly deleted the text and reflected on Troy's uneven tone – the kid sounded like someone had dosed him with equal parts giddiness and nerves, and Jeff couldn't blame him. To be honest, he couldn't even imagine the hoops Troy'd had to jump through to come to the realization that hey, maybe he liked guys, and hey, maybe that wasn't a bad thing. Ah, the legacy of modern society. Jeff would've been tempted to get up and shake both their hands if he'd felt like upsetting the status quo even more, but it was a fragile thing that couldn't pull itself back together after too many shocks; let it calm down before he inflicted any more surprises via uncharacteristic emotion from him, and _god_, he was starting to sound like Abed.

Annie and Britta were vocally expressing their excited support. Shirley didn't sound as excited, but the tone that accompanied her "As long as you boys are happy" was genuine, and Jeff's mouth almost twitched. Almost. He heard Pierce mention 'Jeff', talking about his letter dedicated to Jeff's 'coming out' and how he'd have to adjust it to fit this surprise turn of events, and Jeff tuned him out.

Surprise turn of events _his ass_. Surprised it hadn't happened sooner, maybe.

_Dear Troy and Abed,_ he typed.

"So… you guys don't think this is, like, gonna affect the dynamics of the group or whatever?" Troy sounded hopeful.

Affect it? Jeff wouldn't be surprised if absolutely nothing changed, except for more blatant moments of affection, maybe. Which was fine by him, as long as it wasn't directly in his line of sight. Overly public couples were the worst. Blegh.

Jeff listened to the chorus of 'not at alls' and the like.

_Congrats on finally realizing that you're completely in love with each other._

"Aren't you going to say something, Jeffrey?" Shirley asked.

_As cheesy as it sounds, I wish you guys all the best._

"Yeah, gonna swallow your ego and show some support, maybe?" Britta sounded way too smug about the matter. As if she was the only open-minded one. Pshaw.

_Hopefully you can make it work. I wouldn't know how people do that, so don't expect any big speeches about it._

"Britta, I think we all know my ego's too big to be digestible," Jeff muttered absently.

"You _sure_ you don't have anything to add, Jeff?" Pierce sounded almost the same as Britta, with an added dose of flagrant innuendo. As if he was open-minded at all. _Hah._

Jeff finally glanced up, under the weight of many eyes. Everyone was looking at him, and he purposefully avoided Annie's Disney eyes and Shirley's iron ones lest they guilt him into saying something emotional. Instead, he focused on Troy and Abed – Troy still torn between happiness and nervousness, Abed unreadable.

Only, not really. Jeff especially had to avoid Abed's eyes, lest he be beguiled into smiling.

Jeff settled on meeting Troy's eyes – a safer bet, since it was Troy who needed just a little reassurance and Troy who would only need a few words to get it. "Good luck," Jeff said simply, with a nod, and the last thing he saw before returning his eyes to his phone was the big smile on Troy's face and the sparkling kind of happiness in Abed's eyes.

"That's all you have to say?" Annie asked indignantly. "How about a Winger speech?"

_Okay, maybe I do kind of know, in theory. Our group does it every day, somehow. Though maybe not in the exact same way as you guys will have to do it._

"No, thanks," Jeff said absently. This text was turning into a Winger speech all on its own. He'd probably have to edit it for mush later on.

He glibly fended off the rest of the protests and attempted persuasions.

_Definitely not in the exact same way. But close enough, right? Actually, I don't even know what I'm saying anymore._

A hell of a lot of editing was in order, to be sure. Jeff's eloquence seemed to dance just out of his reach, no matter how much he strained for it. Granted, what he'd typed so far had a messy eloquence all on its own. It was probably a good thing he'd decided not to give this speech out loud. No doubt it would have coerced him into participating in hugs and mush, and while that was all well and good at times… well, right now, he was content to merely listen to his study group and smile inwardly.

_I do know that you guys are great together. There, I said it. I refuse to get any more sentimental than that._

He couldn't help it. His eyes kept jumping up now that he'd ignored the others long enough that they'd turned their attention back to Troy and Abed; no one noticed the smile that kept sneaking onto his face before he sternly ordered it away.

Well, no one except Abed, who never missed anything, anyway.

He let Abed see it, because that didn't bother him as much. He was pretty sure Abed was the only one who gave less of a damn about preference than he did, and so Abed was the one who was most likely to understand even Jeff's own confusing sentiments. Jeff only understood them vaguely; it had taken him a long time to grasp the possibility of loving an entire group of people so much that you wanted them around forever without wanting to 'be' with any of them, with all of the same intensity he'd always associated with romance. Abed would probably understand it in an instant, and so Jeff smiled at him and wondered if he shouldn't ask Abed about it later.

Maybe.

_I guess this is really pointless, and I'll probably delete it later, but for what it's worth... you guys have my support. And love. Fine, I got sentimental again. Happy?_

_Just don't get too mushy in public, alright?_

Jeff hit 'save' and looked up. Troy and Abed were still holding hands, practically glowing, and everyone else was chattering excitedly, and Jeff couldn't help it. He smiled, and the smile didn't go away even when Britta pointed at him and crowed, "A_ha_!"


End file.
